Allegheny County has ditched the idea of hiring a consultant to set the value of the Rivers Casino and instead will do the work with its own staff.

The county will ask Chief Assessment Officer Ed Schoenenberger and its own assessors to complete the task and have a permanent value on the books by Jan. 15 for the 2010 tax year, said Kevin Evanto, a spokesman for Executive Dan Onorato.

"We just felt with the information we had available and the expertise and abilities of the chief assessment officer and our staff ... we could do the assessment without the assistance of a consultant," he said.

The eight North Shore parcels that make up the casino complex currently are assessed at $7.7 million, relating almost exclusively to the value of the land. The 12.6-acre site on which the casino sits is valued at $4.1 million, far less than the $320 million to $340 million it cost to construct the building.

By contrast, the neighboring Carnegie Science Center is assessed at $27.7 million.

Ira Weiss, solicitor for the Pittsburgh School District, which could receive $4.7 million a year in property tax revenue from the casino if it is assessed at $340 million, has criticized the county for taking so long to determine a permanent assessment.

He believes that the county should have been ready to set a value as soon as the riverfront venue with 3,000 slot machines and eight bars and restaurants opened its doors on Aug. 9.

The school district also wants the county to put an interim assessment on the property so it can start taxing the casino from the date of its opening.

"Certainly [assessing the casino in-house] is a change from what they said before, but we'll await the county assessment process and react accordingly," Mr. Weiss said.

Mr. Evanto has said one reason the county waited so long is that it wanted to give the casino a few months to get up and running so it could better gauge its income.

Income is one of the methods used to assess property, but Mr. Evanto said the county has since determined that it will go with the cost method, which is related to the value of the construction. He said other casinos in Pennsylvania have been valued that way.

He added that county assessors were at the site during the construction and that the casino has been providing documentation relating to the cost of the complex.

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